TEE SETTLEMENT. 
211 
trees. Though at first sight it seems a most 
strange place to build a village on, it has many 
advantages by being fully exposed to the sea-breeze 
in three directions, and is usually very healthy in 
consequence. 
The houses are all built after one pattern, being 
merely large rude sheds supported on rough and 
slender posts ; no walls, but the floor raised to within 
a few feet of the eaves ; the roofs neatly thatched 
with palm leaves, and formed with a very steep pitch, 
projecting considerably beyond the lower side, sur- 
mounted at the gables by large wooden horns, from 
which long strings of shells hang down, giving the 
village quite a picturesque appearance. This is the 
style of architecture usually adopted. Inside there 
are partition walls of thatch forming little sleeping- 
places, to accommodate the two or three separate 
families that usually live under one roof. A few 
mats, baskets, and cooking utensils, purchased from 
the traders, constitute the whole of their furniture : 
spears and bows are their weapons. A sarong or mat 
forms the clothing of the women, a waist-cloth that 
of the men. The women, except in their extreme 
youth, are by no means pretty. Their strongly 
marked features are very unfeminine, and hard work, 
privations, and very early marriage soon destroy 
whatever beauty they might ever have possessed. 
Their toilet is very simple, consisting solely of a mat 
of plaited grass, or strips of palm-leaves worn tight 
